Tag: MacBook Pro

Posted On

I’m fortunate to work at a great company that refreshes our laptops with new tech every couple of years, and today was MacBook Christmas for me: my new Touch Bar MacBook Pro showed up.

Whenever I do a laptop refresh, I choose to install everything new instead of using a system transfer, specifically so I can reevaluate what apps I use, whether there are other options available, and find new things in those apps’ settings that I might not have seen before.

As part of this process, I’m going to do a series of blog posts showcasing the apps I use on a regular basis and explaining why I choose to use them and how they fit into my personal workflows.

Once I have them going, I’ll post a link to the archives here, but if you’d like to know when I post them, feel free to follow my blog. :)

Posted On

I finally have my laptop back after a couple of weeks out of the house for a warranty repair on the Retina panel (I was seeing light leak spots in one corner of the screen).

It’s kind of interesting how fully I had adapted to not needing to be sitting at my desk to do computer-y things. Without my main laptop, I wasn’t able to relocate even within my own home, to say nothing of having the ability to work elsewhere.

I will say that Colorware (the company that customized my MacBook Pro) was aces with the support and warranty service. I wish they had communicated where I was in the process a bit more, but they hardly even asked questions about the return and it’s awesome that they stand by their customization work with a full year’s worth of warranty—since they are voiding the Apple one when they take your system apart to create the logo insert and paint it.

This should also mean some additional blog posting and testing now that I can more easily do those things in the evening. :)

Posted On

Next week, I’ll be celebrating four years of working at Automattic, which has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life. One of the perks of reaching your four-year anniversary is being given a MacBook (Air or Pro) model of your choice, with the WordPress logo customized onto the top cover.

As it turns out, the laptops are customized/branded at Colorware, and I asked before ordering mine if I could also have it painted. The answer was yes. :)

I went for a glossy red for the main piece, glossy white for the hinge, and matte black for the top and bottom plates. So far, the consensus is that it’s pretty sweet-looking:

11958201725_9a584f7a85_o

It even looks pretty boss with the hinge closed, due to the fact that the main plate also covers the sides of the construction:

11958198435_e6e4bf1401_o

Red and white mixed with black has become a bit of a color scheme for me since I started working at Automattic. When you start here, you get a bag with the logo embroidered on it:

11958217185_bbdbfd68a2_o

Originally, I’d gone this route because it matched these guys:

9-detroit-red-wings-datsyuk-zetterberg-2013-stanley-cup-playoffs

And it happened to match these guys, too:

nlcs-dodger-cardinals-baseball

But then at some point, it kind of turned into matching this guy/girl, which dawned on me when I bought this:

11959040336_40bae500d9_o

That’s of course not the only thing I have that matches the scheme, like my iPad in black with a Product Red case:

11959021836_fd93259e36_o

And my 3DS, which is in red and black:

11958220575_d3ae023b64_o

And my wallet, which is the image of the grandaddy of them all:

11958494173_6d06076704_o

But this new one is my favorite.

11958635244_b8f9fe6226_o

I’ll say more on the actual anniversary, which is next week. :)